Late Nights
by Hella-venger
Summary: While having coffee, Chloe decides to confront Max about her feelings for a certain Christian girl. Discussed Marshfield.


Disclaimer: I don't own Life is Strange.

This was inspired by a fic I read by _Life is Tombraider._ If you're a MarshField fan, you should read some of her stories.

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"Did we have to come here?"

I suppressed the urge to groan audibly.

"Yes, because we are in dire need of coffee." I can barely keep my eyes open while I'm saying this. For some God-only-knows reason, my mind decided to not let me have any sleep. While I was wondering what to do, my dear friend Chloe texted me. Apparently, her brain was giving her similar problems.

Thus, why we arrived at the nearest Starbucks.

"I get that, but Starbucks? Really? What ever happened to your hipster spirit?" Chloe does not do well without sleep. The punk look she usually managed was not fairing well. Her hat was hanging off her head at the weirdest angle. I'm kinda wondering how it's staying on.

The blue hair she sported was spiking out all over the place. Made her look like she was straight out of an anime

"My hipster spirit disappeared along with my ability to fall asleep. And it got replaced by the student-zombie desire to consume coffee." For the last few hours, I've been in a near-sleep state. Always tired, but never going into dreamland. Unless I get an energy boost, I'm going to go crazy. And not the cool, funny crazy. I'm talking about the 'kick and punch everyone in sight' crazy.

Know for sure that Chloe's already entered that stage. The guy who bumped into her at the door can attest to that.

We reached a table, taking seats opposite to each other. The waiter came and took our order. Is there such thing as a super-caffeinated drink? If there was, we ordered about three of them.

Fiddling with her bracelet, Chloe look offhandedly at me.

"It's a bit dumb to be drinking coffee when we're tryin to get to sleep, isn't it?"

I both agreed and disagreed with this comment.

"It is, but at this point, I'm fairly sure I won't be sleeping at all tonight. So, might as well be wired."

She threw her hands into the air. This was Chloe's way of an agreement.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just get some of that thick, brown stuff in us." A sleazy grin was on Chloe's face.

The exact opposite expression was on mine.

"Did you have to say it like that? I'm going to be hearing that while I'm enjoying my caffeine-overdosed drink."

Letting out a small chuckle, Chloe began leaning on the back of her chair.

"Speaking of opportunities, when you gonna make your move Kate."

I'm glad the coffee hadn't come already. Because if I had, I probably would of choked on it.

"Wh-what are you talking about?"

"Ugh, cut the bullshit, Mad Max. This is me. I've known you your whole life. I knew you that hid your sheets under your closet when you wetted the bed. I knew that you broke your neighbor's China tea set when you were seven. And I know that you have feelings for that girl."

Thankfully, the coffee came at this moment. I was going to need it if we were going to have this conversation.

"Fine, you got me. I like Kate. But I'm not about to go announcing it with a megaphone." First of all, I don't even own a megaphone.

"Why not? Kate's pretty cool, and the two of you would make a hella cute couple."

"You know all the crap Kate's been through the last few weeks. She doesn't need to be dealing with the idea that I have feelings for her right now."

Surprisingly, Chloe didn't immediately reply. She just took gulp of her coffee before looking at me softly.

"Look, I get that you're worried about her. You should be. But…Look, it's like this. I can tell that your feelings aren't one sided. The way that girl looks at you, it's the exact same way you look at her. I saw Kate sometimes, a few weeks before you came back. Never once did she ever look as close to as happy then when she's with you."

Before I replied, Chloe continued, ignoring the possibility of me wanting to join the conversation.

"What I'm saying is, yeah, there's risks. But nothing ever worth doing doesn't have them."

I didn't give her the chance to talk over me this time.

"Calling them 'risks' is oversimplifying them a bit. Let's just forget about the fact that I would be taking advantage of Kate while she's vulnerable. How do you think her strictly-fundamentalist Christian family is going to react to this?"

Chloe held up a finger, stopping me from talking until she finished the drink of coffee she was taking.

"From what you told me about them, her dad and sister should be cool with it. As for her mom, after the way she treated Kate, I don't think you or Kate should care about her opinion."

I admit, I agreed with her about the last part.

Once again, Chloe ignored the idea that I could reply.

"I'm not saying it's gonna be easy, but I know you'll both be happier in the long run."

"What if we aren't?"

This managed to get Chloe to pause.

I didn't want to talk about this.

"What if, a year, two years from now, Kate realizes I'm not what she wants in life. I can barely cope with the idea of her saying no to me now. How could I deal with her leaving me when we're actually together?"

For a few seconds, Chloe just stared at me.

Then she flicked my forehead.

"Worrying about that shit will mess up your head. You can't think about what will happen ten years from now. Just think about what you want right now. Leave the rest of that crap for when it comes."

"That's a lot easier to say than do." I REALLY didn't want to talk about this.

This time, Chloe looked away from me. She was looking out the window, but seemed to be staring at something that wasn't there.

"You wanna know something? When I see the two of you together, you know who you remind me of? My mom and dad. The way you talk. The way you laugh with each other. The way it looks like your pulling teeth whenever you have to leave each other."

I knew this was hard for Chloe. She never talked about her dad this way. Sure, she did it when she was angry or sad, but this was different. It was like she had a reason for it this time.

"If you two have the chance to be as happy as my parents were, then you should take it. Otherwise, you're just two fucking idiots who're never gonna get laid."

I didn't even try to make a quick reply this time. This wasn't Chloe trying to prove she was right. She was honestly trying to help me.

I got out my phone, making a big deal of it so Chloe would notice.

"Who're you textin?" A lot of the emotion that was in her voice was replaced by the earlier crankiness.

"Not texting anyone."

That seemed to interest her.

This time, I didn't give her a chance to reply.

"I'm putting in a reminder. One month from now, at 5:00 PM, I will tell Kate how I feel. If something happens, I'll change it. But if things continue the way they are, then I will tell her exactly how I feel."

Chloe maintained her indifferent look.

"Kinda ruins the whole 'tell her right now' message I was going for. But it's something."

After this, we just started rambling on about pointless small talk. About her step-dad. About my classes. Just anything that came to mind.

As we were leaving, Chloe grabbed my arm. She stared intently into my eyes.

"I know you're worried about how Kate will deal with you telling her, but she's a hell of a lot stronger than she looks. The girls got spirit."

I smiled.

"You don't need to state the obvious."

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